Anthony Astillo

Anthony Astillo (13 February 1920-5 June 2009) was the President of Symbionisia from 1957 to 1965, succeeding Conrad Rogers and preceding Fred Silvino. Astillo was the last leader of the Ped Party, which collapsed after he left office.

Biography
Anthony Astillo was born in Pacific City, Symbionisia to a middle-class family, and he worked at a market before becoming a lawyer in college. Astillo was known for defending civil rights and labor activists, and Astillo became a media celebrity. In 1953, he joined the Ped Party of President Conrad Rogers, agreeing with its liberal stances. He served as Attorney-General of Symbionisia under Rogers, and he would be elected to succeed Rogers in 1957.

As President of Symbionisia, Astillo decided to lead a revolution of the lower classes against the upper classes, and he gained popularity with several labor unions and other left-wing organizations. Astillo led the Ped Party's advance into the 1960s, an era of social change. Astillo passed laws that guaranteed the right to protest, enforced antitrust laws to prevent corporate takeovers of the Symbionisian economy, and he also increased taxation on big businesses. However, Astillo refused to turn the economy towards socialism, as he did not want to lose favor with the United States during the Cold War. Astillo was reelected in 1961, but he would lose popularity due to his purge of the Symbionisian Communist Party from politics and his censorship of the communist press. Astillo lost supporters as it became apparent that he was giving up on his promised revolution, and he left office in 1965. The Ped Party collapsed after he left office, and Astillo and his supporters were shunned by the people. He died in 2009 at the age of 89, having lived on a pension for years.